"They are now our Wadia girls,” Dr Minnie Bodhanwala, chief executive officer of Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital for Children telephonically informed Parsiana on May 25, 2017, emphasizing the words ‘our’ and ‘Wadia.’ "Every employee in the Hospital knows of them and wants to take care of them,” she added. She was referring to the case of the previously conjoined twin girls Riddhi and Siddhi who were "separated” at the Hospital on January 17, 2014 (see "Child care center,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, August 7, 2016). Bodhanwala elaborates that the parents’ financial condition does not permit them to even visit the abandoned girls. "They are confident that their girls are being taken care of,” she noted, adding that they occasionally make phone calls to Riddhi and Siddhi’s caretakers at the Hospital.
Dr Minnie Bodhanwala with Riddhi and Siddhi
"It was a challenging case and we weren’t sure if they would walk but our confidence won,” according to the doctor, who was quoted in Daily News and Analysis (DNA) of May 10, 2017 on the fourth birthday of the twins. "A lot of people and NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) have come forward” to support the girls, she said. The report states that the girls, who have undergone three surgeries and might need two more, are being brought up by the staff of the Hospital. To their 65-year-old caretaker Shobha Gaikar, the two girls "are like my own family members… I go back home for four days but I call them multiple times a day to check on them.” Riddhi and Siddhi have recently started attending a play group run by an NGO, said the report. Siddhi does not like to walk too much, but Riddhi is "completely fine now,” according to Gaikar.
Bodhanwala informs the magazine that readers can make donations at the Hospital’s website
http://www.wadiahospitals.org/child-donate-online.aspx. Look for the tab ‘Sponsor a patient’ under ‘Contribute.’